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Two Gophers from Texas
Two Gophers from Texas is a 1948 Merrie Melodies short directed by Arthur Davis. Title The title is a pun on Two Guys from Texas, a comedy released earlier that year from Warner Bros., although the short has nothing to do with Texas. Plot A dog is reading a book and decides to seek wild game, which happens to come in the form of the the Goofy Gophers. After trying to get them, only to see the Gophers dive into their hole and then overrun the hole and off a cliff, the dog (upside down, hanging off a tree) discovers four ways to get a gopher: * The canny hunter would remember that gophers possess an enormous curiosity concerning strange or unfamiliar objects: To this end, the dog places a spring with a punching glove attached to it in a chest. When the Gophers, after deciding to ignore the "Do Not Open until Xmas" sticker, open it, they "see" jewelry in it and take the chest with them. The dog takes the chest away from the Gophers and opens it, only to be punched below his chin, as he bounces like a pogo stick. * Gophers are quite fond of fresh vegetables which can therefore be used as bait: The dog, knowing that the Gophers are vegetarians, plants a row of radishes in the ground along with a turnip at the end of the row that is booby-trapped to an overhanging rock tied around a nearby tree, which the dog tests with a ball, triggering the trap successfully. Naturally, the Gophers pick up all of the radishes, and after initial trouble, take the turnip---but the trap is not triggered this time. The dog then holds the string, but triggers the trap and is crushed. * The gopher is a sentimental little creature whose feelings may be played upon to your advantage: The dog disguises himself as a baby under the alias of "Little Snookie", places himself in a booby-trapped carriage (complete with a letter stating that "Little Snookie" is an abandoned, homeless waif, as pictured on the page below), with his cries quickly noticed by the Gophers. The Gophers initially considered feeding the baby or changing its diaper (since according to them these are the two things that could help stop babies cry) but after discovering the booby trap under the dog (which includes a gun, rifle, bomb, and grenade), the Gophers push the carriage up a hill (disguised as a good deed of taking the baby out for a walk), and then release the carriage with the dog in it down the cliff on the other side, leaving the dog howling as he goes over several hills and vertically down a second cliff, where he crashes. As the dog claims that the Gophers missed his inner strength, the dog then falls down, stiff as a board. * If all else fails, you must utilize the gophers' love of music: The dog begins playing what amounts to a one-man band of music, drawing the Gophers' attention as they start dancing to the music. The dog unsuccessfully tries to crush them with cymbals and a banjo that also doubles as a gun, but does drag them to the drums using a trumpet. As the dog tries to crush the gophers on the drums, they evade him and the dog and Gophers end up in the piano, where the Gophers have the dog "trapped like a rat in a trap", as the Gophers then hop all over the piano keys. Hammers attacked to various keys hit the dog in his rear end with the dog regretting having ever read the book. Availability * (1993) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 4, Side 4: Cartoon All-Stars Notes * This short was originally released in Cinecolor to save money, but was re-released as a Blue Ribbon Reissue in 3-hue Technicolor. * This is the first cartoon where the Goofy Gophers have brown and tan fur, as opposed to grey and white fur as in their previous appearance. * This is the only Goofy Gophers short that was the direction was completely done by Arthur Davis. ** Whereas their previous short, "The Goofy Gophers", it was originally planned by Bob Clampett, but was finished by Davis after Clampett's departure in 1946. ** While their next short, "A Ham in a Role", was planned to be directed by Davis, but was instead directed by Robert McKimson after Davis' unit was departed in 1949, when the animation studio was having a budget problem. * The dog in this short is the same one that previously appeared in "The Goofy Gophers" from a year before, he would appear one more time with the Goofy Gophers in "A Ham in a Role" from a year after this short. ** Coincidentally, this is the only appearance of the dog in a Merrie Melodies short, as his two other appearances were part of the Looney Tunes series. * The United Kingdom airs this cartoon on Cartoon Network and Boomerang as a "Proto-dubbed print", meaning that it has the same color correction as well as non-pan-and-scan, as with the case of the "official" European dubbed print, but keeps the reissue end card and audio end cue. Other European countries air the "official" EU Turner dubbed print which has the same altered ending music cue (and virtually identical 1947-48 dubbed ending card) as the USA Turner dubbed version which has the same altered ending music cue.https://yadi.sk/d/5OoeshdnfwQGF Hence this fact might prove there is two EU prints of this short. * Some airings of this cartoon's USA 1995 dubbed version print on CN/Boomerang USA have the black screens in-between the fade-outs edited out for time (evidence in the video in the infobox here), though the cartoon's USA 1995 dubbed version print does exist without the black screens edited out. The EU dubbed version print of the cartoon however doesn't have the black screens removed. Gallery Two Gophers from Texas screenshot.png|The Gophers take the dog (disguised as "Little Snookie") for a ride up the hill....before sending him down a large fall off two cliffs. 2gft trap 1.png|The dog sets his first trap on the gophers. 2gft stiff.png|The dog falls down, stiff as a board after crashing hard on the ground from falling off two cliffs. 2gft letter.png|The letter in the bobby-trapped carriage indicating that "Little Snookie" is an 'abandoned, homeless waif', albeit written with lots of spelling mistakes. 2gft miss.png|The dog unsuccessfully attempts to kill the gophers whom were dancing to the music with booby-trapped musical instruments. mm1066.jpeg|Production model sheet TwoGophersFromTexasPreliminarySketchLobbyCard.jpg|Preliminary Sketch Lobby Card IMG_2423.png|The BR ending card, taken from the rare proto-dubbed version as seen on Boomerang UK IMG 2134.png DOye5eQUEAALzxC.jpg DOye7LZU8AAK_rf.jpg DOyeeqYU8AArVIO.jpg DOyefSWV4AAxLXY.jpg DOyfemnUEAA3YDg.jpg DOyff7nVQAA5lP6.jpg DOyffEwVAAA5oaO.jpg DOyfG3cVQAAVJzS.jpg DOyfgRBVAAApQ5r.jpg DOygwx-VAAAn1Vy.jpg DOyhcyTUIAAVOV8.jpg DOyhd48VQAAyv7h.jpg DOyivTVV4AAh4_s.jpg References External Links * * https://video.meta.ua/2489542.video Category:1948 Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Arthur Davis Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Goofy Gophers Cartoons Category:Cartoons written by Lloyd Turner Category:Cartoons written by Bill Scott Category:Cartoons animated by Emery Hawkins Category:Cartoons animated by Basil Davidovich Category:Cartoons animated by Bill Melendez Category:Cartoons animated by Don Williams Category:Cartoons with layouts by Don Smith Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Stan Freberg Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package Category:Cartoons originally produced in Cinecolor